Voorbereid op reis? check reisloket

Reisverslag Part 2 – Traveling on the MRT

Part 2 – Traveling on the MRT

Singaporeans have a great love for ‘Worldwide Ranking Lists’ and take great pride in their nation when Singapore appears high on such list. An important one and likely the reason that so many expats are living here, is that Singapore is ranked first worldwide for the Ease of Doing Business by the World Bank, for 7 consecutive years now! Another one to be proud of is their 6th place in the Unemployment Rating with only 1.6% unemployment.

One of the reasons that Singapore has managed to grow from a third world to a first world country in about 30 years is the very straightforward and no room for discussion way the country has been and still is governed. In 2010, Singapore was ranked in the last position among high-income countries for "fundamental rights" and "open government", but they also held the first position for "access to civil justice" and "order and security", all by the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index.

Guess you can’t have it both ways...! But for a law abiding citizen, there is no better to place to live. If you can live a life without chewing gum that is, if not, don’t move here!

Singapore is also number 2 on the Most Densely Populated Countries list, and unfortunately ranked number 1 out of 140 countries for Cost of Living…

One thing I know though is that Singapore would most definitely rank number 1 on the best-educated-public-transport-users-list, if such list would actually exist! The MRT stations and trains are covered in signs explaining how one should behave whilst on the train. Have a peek at the photo section before continuing to read ;-)

Traveling in the MRT is easy, quick, clean, cheap and air conditioned, so I use the MRT a lot.
Every time, while I am standing in the MRT (because I am a ‘Stand-up Stefanie’!) and clinging on for dear life to one of the loops or ceiling bars, I quickly scan the people around me and realize that I easily outweigh every single fellow passenger by at least 30 kilos and I was the only one who had to dug their head to enter the train in the first place…
So when I say ‘clinging on for dear life’ I don’t actually refer to my own life. No! Me losing my balance may very well lead to the fatal crushing of a large number of tiny Asian people!

So one day, I stand, I cling and I try to check my FB on my phone when a penetrating whiff of very strong body odor reaches my nose… After glancing around to see who could possibly produce such stench, I perform a super quick, (so quick it is not visible to the human eye) armpit-sniff-test and it turns out … it is ME!!!
Awkward moment!!

But it gets worse!! Because the second my brain registers it is ME, my elbows automatically fling down to my side to prevent further spreading of odor and with that gesture I simultaneously crash the skulls of not one but two (2!) tiny Asian people!